Category: Travel

I am a big fan of planning for “the Big Dark”, where the power is out for more than 3 days. Analog systems, like printed and hand-written records, will be more useful.

Remember: Emergency preparedness isn’t only for you. it is also so others can contact you when something bad happens to them.

There are drawbacks, mostly around family dynamics this article assumes are moot when emergencies happen.

Note: These are my recommendations. Your mileage may vary. I look forward to constructive input on how best to prepare in the digital age.

Keep an off-line list of emergency info & numbers with you

There was a time where people either knew important numbers and information or carried a address book – a printed out, dead tree address book – and a much of change to use a pay phone (remember those?) to call people. We need to embrace at least a subset of that.

In certain countries you may need your ID number as well (though US residents should NOT carry their Social Security card or number).

How about this: keep the numbers of your family and close friends in case your phone dies. I could not call anyone except my children if my phone failed, and they don’t often answer their phones – especially from an unknown caller.

As I’m living in a foreign country I carry a card or two that I can use to get me home. In case you’re traveling, disoriented, or inebriated having a card or two to help you get home can be a life saver.

Carry a bit of cash with you, too, in your wallet.

Keep an off-line list of emergency info & numbers at home

This should be a superset of what you carry with you. Your actual cards and birth certificates and stuff (if they are not in a safe deposit box already) should be in a ready-to-carry locked fireproof box in case of emergency. Bank account information, other financial records, and whatever else needed to rebuild after a disaster should be in here.

Throw some currency in the box, too. While it is in there it isn’t working for you, gaining interest or buying food. But if the power goes out no credit or debit card will help. Having cash will help.

I’ve used the Do Not Disturb feature in iOS since it was introduced. This feature allows you to set “quiet times” when your device won’t alert you with notifications, including phone calls and text messages. It can be activated manually or set to activate at recurring times. I have my set to activate from 10:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m. each day, mainly to avoid “wrong number” calls at all hours of the night.

You have always been able to set a specific group of people you want to exclude from the Do Not Disturb settings. This can be a group you designate in your Contacts or your iPhone’s Favorites list. For years I’ve created a contacts group called “VIP” that I had excluded from Do Not Disturb that included family and a few close friends and other important numbers. While this is handy, it may not cover everyone you want to be able to reach you in the event of an urgent matter. With iOS 10, you have more granular control and can now set contacts on an individual basis to bypass the Do Not Disturb Settings.

To activate the feature select the contact card you want to exclude, edit the contact and select ringtone. At the top of the ringtone menu you’ll now see a toggle for “Emergency Bypass”.

[Android] Use Google’s Trusted Contacts App

Trusted Contacts runs on top of a pretty simple concept, with the tap of a button an approved list of people can request your location from wherever they may be. Users will need to manually approve who can request their location, and once a request is sent, the user will have 5 minutes to approve or decline the request before the app automatically approves and sends it.

This app takes things up a notch as well by adding offline support, in a sense. If a user heads outside of active cell service and internet access, the app will report the last known location for that user 5 minutes after a request is sent. Contacts can also “walk each other home,” virtually. This essentially enables one user to keep track of another user’s location as a live feed.

… Before you can share your location, though, you first have to go through the process of adding contacts to the application…

How to add contacts:

Open the Trusted Contacts application

If this is the first time setting up the application, Trusted Contacts will walk you through adding contacts

To set up new contacts, either tap on the Add contacts button found at the bottom of the home screen or open the menu by selecting the Menu button in the upper left-hand side of the screen and tap on the Add contacts option

Here you can search through the contacts on your device and select Add next to the individual to send them an invitation to be a trusted contact

Set up lock screen emergency information

This is a old tip but still useful.

Basically take a picture of contact information and make it your device’s lock screen. Tailor the content to provide what is needed without going overboard. Imagine you are passed out on the sidewalk and the only thing people can get to is your phone’s lock screen. What is the critical information you can provide on there that doesn’t open you up to identity theft?

I find this more useful than the login banner message most devices support. One doesn’t have to wait for the message to scroll, where almost all users put the contact email or phone number.

What else?

What other things, simple and inexpensive and effective, that folks should do?

I don’t particularly care I’ll miss Christmas and New Year’s. I could do without both. Christmas to me means traffic jams and hypo-consumerism. New Year’s is mostly an opportunity to screw up one’s sleep schedule. Unless the calendar is forgiving, all too soon one returns to work.

I used to volunteer to work those holidays, I liked them so little. I won’t miss them here.

Thanksgiving? Well, that’s another thing entirely.

I love the weather in New England and Michigan this time of year. I love well cooked turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, rolls, green beans, etc. I love pumpkin beer (though it’s creep earlier and earlier reduces the draw for me). I love watching football.

Most of all, I love spending it with my family. It can be just me and the kids. It can be the whole clan or something inbetween.

I wonder how I’ll do that day here. Some of my colleagues and friends here have already volunteered to take my mind off of it.

Like this:

The partner leading my consulting practice asked me about moving to Tokyo in December of ’15. I remember I was in my Brussels hotel room just before Christmas when he floated the notion. By February it was more than a mere notion. By April I would be starting “Any Day Now”.

It’s November, week 45 of 2016, and I’m at long last on the ground with all (most all) of my things.

I’m documenting my Tokyo experience, at least the personal side of things, in a few new places.

On my way to Tokyo as I write this, taking a break from a lengthy client report due in a few weeks.

I’m appreciative of some things:

Economy+ (or less an exit or lesser a bulkhead seat) makes a big difference for me when on a flight longer than two hours. Detroit to Tokyo and the return make it mandatory for me.

An unoccupied middle seat is wonderful.

A friendly and smaller than me person in the aisle seat makes getting out of my window seat (needed for potential naps, elbow protection, and no cart pummeling) outright delightful.

The 747: my favorite airplane. The 787 and 380 are swell and all. For my money there is nothing like flying this beautiful double-decker. I will fly the lower and upper decks in business/first class before they’re retired.

My new travel kit bag pleases me. Tom Bihn’s customer service is matched by the quality of their products.

Audible books and podcasts on @pocketcasts make the trip entertaining and educational while I write.

Like this:

I lost a great post to WordPress web interface requiring a random re-authentication. I need to reconfigure Emacs org-mode to get it working with the new VPS.

There’s a bug in Delta’s InFlight Entertainment (IFE) system I often trigger. I turn the display off during boarding since all it does is flash advertising. The IFE kicks in for the safety video, and then shuts off as it was before departure. Unfortunately, that means the IFE no longer works unless I can talk the cabin crew into a reboot, which I doubt I’d do. I miss the travel map & stats.

Speaking of the IFE safety video, Delta’s quality seems to drop with each iteration. This “best of, award show” version is not just bad but a clip show at that.

At least Richard Anderson STOPPED YELLING AT US IN HIS MONOTONE SOUTHERN ACCENT. Now a days, Mr. Anderson talks to us at a normal volume & even throws in some inflection. Nice!

On a big international flight light mine (MSP – NRT), don’t follow the first cattle call to the gate. Almost always they open up another lane on the other side of the desk. Get there.

I hate neck pillows. More specifically, I hate that people have those giant half fuzzy inner-tubes around their necks. Throw in a pair of over-the-ear headphones and eye shades also around the neck and you hit the trifecta!

I LOVE Internet over the ocean! Well done, GoGo!

There’s a woman sitting behind me who is loving the show she’s watching. I hear her laughing every 5 minutes or so.

In the 12 years I’ve been doing it, outside of one incident in which a producer tried to convince me not to dress up because he said I was putting myself above the actors — seriously — I’ve been thanked by both cast members and crew people for showing them a little respect by dressing like a leader and like the adult I’d always wanted to be. And, selfishly, yes, I’ve also just really enjoyed wearing my suits — just like I did before I grew out of that Pierre Cardin three-piece.

By the way, there are practical uses to wearing a suit every day: you can use the bathroom in most all hotels (Mr. Feig spoke with Jesse Thorn & others on the topic), and if you’re on a plane it’s easier to make use of the business/first class facilities if you’re not in it, regardless of your row. As with all power, use it responsibly and only when alternatives are exhausted.